Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has mastered the art of talking a lot but not saying much. He did this when he spoke on the hot-button issue of foreigners flooding Singapore, a topic that dominated his National Day (ND) Rally speech on Sunday night.

His first statement already is dubious. Mr Lee says that the GDP for the first half of the year was 18% year-on-year and that this growth created “lots of jobs” and as a result “unemployment has gone down”. Not true.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) reported that the the actual numbers of the jobless increased by nearly 25,000 between March and June this year. Seasonally adjusted figures show that around 68,100 Singapore residents were out of work in June 2010.

The number of unemployed did decrease towards the latter half of 2009. But what good is a ND Rally speech when we cannot depend on the prime minister to use up-to-date information rather than spin us using data that’s more than half-a-year old?

The Ministry of Manpower reported that as of June 2010 nearly 70,000 people in Singapore are unemployed. The numbers also reveal that those who are still looking for jobs after six months is on the rise. Add to this is the fact that most of those retrenched are older workers – aged 40 and above.

Behind the numbers are real people who suddenly find themselves out of a job. They have families to feed and bills to pay. They are also the ones who have children in their teens, a time when expenses are the highest.

These are hardworking folks who through no fault of theirs are rudely greeted with a pink slip on day when they show up for work. And while the income stops, the bills continue to pile up. The electricity bill still needs to be paid, the HDB loan still needs to be serviced, and children still need to go to school.

In his zeal to impress foreigners on how efficiently and smoothly he can run the Youth Olympic Games (YOG), Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan has been quite happy to sacrifice the daily necessities of Singaporeans.

Take, for example, the temporary closure of bus-stops. The Land Transport Authority has ordered that buses cannot stop outside the YOG venues such as the one at the Toa Payoh Stadium. Two SBS bus inspectors are stationed at the stop to wave buses on and prevent commuters from getting off. Is such a measure necessary?

Could security concerns be the reason that the LTA is doing this? The answer is no because anyone can walk into the vicinity of the stadium and competition halls. There is no security personnel to check visitors.

Human rights activist Mr Seelan Palay is serving a 12-day prison term for taking part in the Tak Boleh Tahan (Malay for “cannot take it”) protest on 15 Mar 08 outside Parliament House.

Mr Seelan was convicted together with 8 other activists by District Judge Chia Wee Kiat in Mar 2010. All of them have appealed the conviction. The appeal hearing date has yet to be fixed. Some of those convicted, including Ms Chee Siok Chin and Dr Chee Soon Juan, have served their two-week sentences.

Mr Seelan, who produced One Nation Under Lee (ONUL), is facing another charge of participating in an illegal assembly on 9 Aug 08 together with 10 other activists (see here).

“If I’d known that retirement was going to be this good I’d have done it the day after I left school!!!”

— Mickey White

Flowers know when to shrivel and die. Trees know when to shed their leaves. Animals know when they can no longer hunt. Even elephants know when to die.

Do Singaporeans know when to retire? Some of them don’t, many of them just can’t and most just don’t know how to.

Those who don’t are obviously the very well-paid. If you are getting an income of millions of dollars from your company, why would you want to give that up? I asked my long-retired mathematics teacher, aged 77, for his view on this and, with a mind still as sharp as his putt, he replied, “This is pure mathematical logic”.

“If you have a flood, just carefully think who is more likely to get the drainage put right and have the flood alleviated as quickly as possible: A PAP candidate with links to the ministers and Prime Minister, or a non-PAP candidate who has become an MP, like in Potong Pasir or Hougang, and who has to manage on his own?”

What kind of a society are we building for our young ones? What are their aspirations? Are they going to live in a country that is different from ours, one which is free and democratic? We hear from them in this year’s National Day Message from the SDP.

A quick survey of Singapore’s popular internet forums also reveal a general apathy towards the Games, sprinkled with negative comments about how the event has been organized thus far and how far removed the YOG seems from the daily lives and aspirations of ordinary citizens.

Floods have been China’s sorrow for thousands of years. They have also been Singapore’s talking point for the past few months. In China, people wailed and cried as they lost their loved ones, their properties and the crops to the calamity. Luckily for Singapore, except for those affected, we can still laugh and joke at the excuses made up by people who are supposed to address and solve the problem.

The Legend

Five thousand years ago, the flooding by the Yellow River was so bad that the confederation of chieftains under the leadership of Yao （尧）decided to appoint Gun （鲧） to take charge of the fight against the flood.